If there is one game that has had an undoubted influence on the raft of Steam Summer Festival demos we’ve been staring down this week, it’s Among Us. The part detective story, part lord of the flies ritual elimination game carved a whole new duplicitous space for multiplayer games out in the cold empty loins of the cosmos. Now, another space-faring whodunnit is set to drag us all kicking and screaming onto a luxury starship, mostly because we’re being carried by a pair of insidious Personoids.
As things go, First Class trouble might sound a lot like the aforementioned Among us. It’s got space, a group of duplicitous passengers, a range of seemingly pointless tasks, and some stone-cold killers. Published by Versus Evil and coming to PC in early 2021, First Class Trouble throws a group of unsuspecting players onto a disaster on a retro 60s themed space cruise that’s gone suddenly a bit wrong. Instead of the laid back atmosphere of the everyday vacation, you’ll find yourself tasked with navigating a range of levels to find and eliminate the computer AI named CAIN before it decides you’re all done for. By performing a series of tasks together, all without being done in by a couple of imposters you’ll hopefully eliminate CAIN and escape. What makes First Class Trouble such an appealing twist on other multiplayer survival sims is the polish and complexity that developer Invisible Walls brings to the entire escapade.
While this whole thing sounds like an everyday adventure dodging the orange sus, First Class Trouble lives up to its name from the moment you log into this top tier murder simulator. Character avatars are far more than just oddly shaped primary colours. Instead, players get a fully fleshed character with thousands of possible combinations already in the Steam demo, with even more new styles planned for the Early Access release. There’s a set of rewards and decorations coming for your very own cruise cabin and plenty cosmetic kickbacks for the fancy psychotic death bot inside you still to come. The surrounding ship is just as detailed. Thrusting an unsuspecting group of players into its auspicious waiting lounge, there’s a definite charm to events with plenty of in-universe to interact, break or just throw at your unsuspecting comrades, and that’s all before things begin to slide out of control. By the bar, you’ll find plenty of pews to sit back and watch the asteroid fields slip by or you could slink off past the buffed brass plating out to the serenity of the pool, all of which look fantastic and hold their own potential pitfalls.
Easy Living
Voice communications are already baked into First Class Trouble and come coupled with proximity settings meaning that in space, only the people nearby can hear you scream. This all comes alongside solid matchmaking, meaning there’s no need to go scurrying around finding a discord server to get started either, although there are plenty of hosting options for those of you that want a chaotic game with friends and partners. Signing up for this cruise really is as simple as just rolling into the premier lounge and prepare to die in the cold unrelenting vastness of space.
Fret not, however! There is hope. While some of your fellow passengers are metallic skinjobs, the rest of you will have a route out of this situation. Players thrust together need to perform a range of tasks to navigate past doors, work out who the Peronoids are, and not get murdered. First Class Trouble excels at using its fully 3D environment to add in a bunch of tricks, puzzles, and tools that expand the ways in which you’ll need to work together. Doors that block your way tend to be easily unlocked but require some concentrated player interaction, from coordinating button presses to describing symbols. Two player performances are commonplace, even if it’s safer to go in threes. Despite the cooperation required, it is all pretty easy to overcome with none of the challenges being particularly overbearing, assuming you’re not being led out into an airlock, and while this still holds onto some of the basic ideas Among Us piloted, it draws them out into a new dimension with a huge range of diversity and illicit opportunity to off your opponents.
If Looks Could Kill
Assuming you make it through the gorgeous opening lounge and onto the next area of the game, there’s further opportunity point the finger at the would-be assassins, but that’s just one more thing that makes First Class Trouble stand out from the competition. Aside from catching somebody in the act, there are plenty of clues available top point the finger of suspicion. Scattered clues, old passenger logs, and pointers to the identity of the dangers are scattered around the space liner. It’s just up to you to find them before the ner do wells around you modify those records, yes Personoids can meddle with your big brain detective work!
The most traditional method of offing anybody in First Class Trouble is for both Personoids to work together, grabbing an unsuspecting passenger and while injecting them with a needle full of who knows what. This continues the theme of co=ordinated action and while there’s the odd accident, like drowning in a pool, that might befall some individuals, the design of this four-handed job means that getting away with murder isn’t always an easy job. Sure, Personoids have a range of their own tools but there are only so many times you can slip away.
I said before that First Class Trouble takes the basic ideas that we’ve already been playing with and elaborates. It takes a fun premise and a silly set of circumstances and creates an outlandish environment where fires raging, people drowning, oxygen supplies, and the awesome retro sci-fi sheek all distract you from the inbuilt complexity and murderous robots circling your midst. I’ve been joining games randomly and had everything from rude trolls, to roleplayers, to a village idiot who was actually a lethal cybernetic mastermind that spaced me. Every game has been a hoot. Play the First Class Trouble demo before it get’s taken out, on Wednesday 10th February, and locked up in cryo-storage. If you’re already too late to get on board this cruise then don’t despair, Early Access is coming soon.
